The Dympna Centre

The Dympna Centre was started in 1971 by Louis Marteau, (1922 – 2002)- a priest of the Westminster Diocese. He saw how people who minister to others in the Church need to be ministered to and have space for themselves.

Terry McGrath became the Administrator of the Dympna Centre in 1994. He is a priest as well as a member of a religious congregation. He has been working directly with priests and religious since 1983.

The theoretical approach to our work is person-centred.

We work with the confidence that each one can be reflective, have insights, take charge of learning and make choices, as the self unfolds and the person develops.

We value the traditions of wisdom and spiritual insight cherished by religious people, as well as the reality expressed by Ignatius Loyola, who affirmed that “the creator deals directly with the creature and the creature directly with the creator and Lord”.

We believe that a person or group, at any age or stage, can choose freedom and life a little more when they engage with their own life experience.

Our aims are:-

The provision of counselling and therapy principally for Clergy, members of religious orders and lay Church workers.